Payton provides insight into improvement of Saints defense throughout season

The defensive improvement for the New Orleans Saints from its early season look, chocked full of big penalties and big plays against it, to what it is today, is dramatic.

Speaking with media Thanksgiving morning, Saints coach Sean Payton discussed what has changed.

“The devil, often times, is in the details,” Payton said. “There’s times when you look at things and you say man, we’re close here. You have to start with, we can’t have like two or three dropped coverages in a game. In other words, you can play lights out but if you drop one or two of them and all of a sudden they result in big plays, that’s going to do you in every time so we’ve done a great job eliminating, for the most part, the big chunk plays.”

Payton sees his defense coming together in all phases.

“I just think that overall, we found a niche,” Payton said. “Some of its in nickel, some of its in dime. Some of it has been in an odd spacing look but the rush and the coverage are playing awfully well together and it’s probably a result, a little bit, of winning on first and second down, that we’re getting into these third and longer situations.”

Sometimes, it takes time for things to come together.

“I think, do Dennis’ (Allen) credit and their side of the ball, just like we’re hitting it on offense, the first thing that comes to mind is reduce the variables,” Payton said.

“In other words, if we’re doing a lot just okay, then we need to reduce some of the variables maybe and offensively, we’ve gone through that a little bit. We come out of a game and feel like man, we had too many mental mistakes. At some point, if a bunch of students are getting ‘B’s,’ you’ve got to evaluate if you are teaching the subject properly.”

Payton feels Kwon Alexander has fit in quite well in immediate fashion as a starter at linebacker.

“I feel his personality immediately now,” Payton said. “It feels like he’s been here eight weeks and that’s a good thing. His work ethic on the field, he’s kind of an infectious leader and I think he loves playing football. That can travel to any locker room, I think. To his credit, man, he’s come in here and embraced his role.”

Payton is impressed with Denver rookie wide receiver Jerry Jeudy of Alabama.

“He’s got great transition,” Payton said. “That means two things. Obviously, a player can well extremely well but they can also stop well. He’s got good hips, he’s savvy.”

Payton also praised the play of rookie tight end Adam Trautman, saying he is doing exceptionally well.